Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to refund Mr X for an emergency pull cord service. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault with the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council charged him for an emergency pull cord service that he did not need and refused to provide a refund for this.
2. Mr X said he suffered financial loss due to this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X lives in the Council’s extra care housing development. Extra care housing allows service users to live independently and features on site staffing and an emergency pull cord system. Until recently, the pull cord system was chargeable and compulsory for all service users.
7. In December 2022 the Council wrote to residents at the development and explained it would allow service users without care packages to opt out from the emergency pull cord system. Mr X opted out and complained to the Council that he wanted a refund for the period he had previously paid for the system.
   The Council advised it would not be providing a refund.
8. Mr X remains unhappy with the Council’s decision and wants us to find the Council at fault. The evidence indicates Mr X agreed to the Council’s terms and conditions knowing that the emergency pull cord system was a compulsory feature of living at the development. Whilst he did not use the system, he benefited from it before he opted out. The Council is therefore not required to provide a refund for a service Mr X had access to and had the option to make use of.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we would be unlikely to find fault with the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman